Hear a brief message from GIS-Pro 2020 Gold Sponsor, New Light Technologies before today's important keynote address from Chris Vaughan.
In this talk, Christopher Vaughan will use the COVID-19 response and recent hurricane events as a backdrop to describe how his team of geospatial analysts, and the geospatial community as a whole, is moving towards the “Information” component of GIS. Geospatial products and analysis not only answer questions about
where a disaster occurred, but also help decision-makers understand secondary impacts on communities and the lifelines that sustain them. In addition, he will discuss how every disaster reminds us of the importance of sharing information and lessons learned within the GIS community, and how organizations such as the GISCorps provide invaluable data and analysis to FEMA and the emergency management community nationwide.
Chris Vaughan serves as the geospatial information officer for FEMA. In this role, he has led organizational change, established an integrated geospatial workforce across the agency, and is advancing innovative technologies within the emergency management community. Chris also serves as the chief of the Response Geospatial Office (RGO) within the Planning and Exercise Division. The RGO delivers policy, guidance, and training for the FEMA geospatial enterprise.
Chris is a member of the National Response Coordination Staff where he serves as a Geospatial and Technical Group Supervisor. Since joining FEMA in 2010, Chris has provided crisis-decision support for more than 250 incidents ranging from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, tornados, and pandemics. For COVID-19, Chris was appointed as a co-lead for the Data and Analytics Task Force (DATF). In this role, he supported the delivery of advanced modeling, technology, and analysis related to pandemic response operations.
Mr. Vaughan has a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Lee University. He is a graduate of American University’s Key Executive Leadership Certificate Program as well as Harvard University’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative Executive Education Program.Then celebrate the latest inductee into
URISA's GIS Hall of Fame!
